Victory at Ningbo - Teamwork extend their points lead

Teamwork Motorsport had a very successful weekend during the second round of the 2018 TCR China Touring Car Championship at the Ningbo International Speedpark, with a victory for Sunny Wong in a rain-abandoned final race on Sunday, and with strong points finish for Alex Hui on Saturday, meaning the Hong Kong-based team leave with an extended lead in the championship standings.

The team's newly upgraded Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR was on the pace from the start of the weekend, with Wong qualifying for his sprint race in third position, with Alex Hui qualifying for his sprint in fourth.

Hui's race was up first, and while he had a good start, it wasn't quite as good as Tang You Xi's in the MacPro Racing Honda Civic TCR behind him; but Hui was very quickly able to get back ahead of Tang, but in the meantime the top three cars had the chance to start to break away.

Hui closed up on Li Lin's Leo Racing Volkswagen during the closing stages of the race, and tried to make a move on the final lap at Turn 1 down the inside, but was unable to complete the pass with the two making light contact. Li continued to finish third while Hui picked up key points with fourth.

On Saturday afternoon, it was Sunny Wong's turn at the wheel, and Wong also lost a spot to the always fast-starting Honda Civic, this time of Kang Jian Zhong, but was quickly able to get back ahead and back to third and then spent the rest of the race chasing Li Lin's Volkswagen.

Li's pace dropped off in the final lap, with Wong entering a massive battle with Li, but Wong's attempts to pass were thwarted at every turn until Turn 6 on the final lap when he made a run around the outside, only to be spun out and left in the gravel.

The true excitement came in the one-hour endurance Race 3, with Teamwork starting seventh on the grid after a not-so-lucky draw for the reversed grid, but race starter Sunny Wong was quickly up to fourth, back behind Li Lin again.

On lap five, Wong made a pass on Li and this time, there was no contact - with Wong now closing up on the Zhu Zhen Yu's Volkswagen as the rain began to fall on lap seven of the race.

The Honda of race leader André Couto was significantly slower in the wet conditions, with Zhu and Wong quickly catching and passing the Honda driver.

As Zhu and Wong stayed out to try to make it to the 25 minute window before pitting for wet Michelin tyres, Zhu crashed out of the lead at Turn 1, while Wong was able to stay on track and assume the lead, pitting the car to hand over to team-mate Alex Hui, just as the officials decided to red flag the race.

Wong and Hui's victory means they now lead the drivers' championship by an increased margin, now 24 points clear of Andre Coutó, heading to the next round of the championship later this month.

Sunny Wong said:

"We didn’t come here with a very quick and competitive set-up, but session-by-session, race-by-race, we made improvements. Especially in Race 3, where our pace was actually good. The rain brought out so much uncertainty and eventually played into our favour with a victory, which is a good recovery from our DNF yesterday. We're glad to leading the championship points and hope to deliver more at the next outing."

The next round of the 2018 TCR China Touring Car Championship takes place on 29th-30th September, with the series returning to the Ningbo International Speedpark, joining the China Touring Car Championship and the prestigious FIA World Touring Car Cup.